Opinion

An ever-increasing list of projects, collaborations, and exhibitions are bringing world-class design made in Africa to the centre-stage of the global design industry. Long overlooked for either being the bargain buy creations churned out for local tourists markets or merely as a source of inspiration for designers around the world, design from Africa was something that was not seen to exist in the definition of developed western design industries. But the fact is that design in its most fundamental form has been an integral part of African societies for centuries, bringing forth iconic creations such as the reclining beds and […]

African design and artisanship is something I am very passionate about, and it is wonderful to see it making great strides both locally on the African continent and internationally. Not too long ago in the West, the terms artisan or craft were seen as inferior, often dismissed as being the poor cousin of the much more feted and glamorous title of designer. But how times have changed, with the word artisan now a buzz word applied to everything from factory assembled furniture collections to processed food. The processes of which, a contradiction to the true meaning of artisanship, which typically […]